U.S. Pat. No. 6,834,637 discloses an adapter for an air valve, such as an idle air control valve, has a rigid tubular member extending between a distal insertion end and an attachment pedestal end. The insertion member, or distal end, is rigidly attached to an air passage of a throttle body and an idle air control valve is rigidly attached to the attachment end. This allows an idle air control valve to be rigidly mounted to a throttle body while being displaced from the throttle body and held in a non contact association with the throttle body to allow different variations and styles of idle air control valve to be used with various types of throttle bodies.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,417 discloses a throttle body (61) has a first body part (62) containing an upstream portion of the through-bore (68) and a second body part (64) containing a downstream portion of the through-bore. The two body parts are joined together to register the downstream portion of the through-bore as a continuation of the upstream portion at respective confronting faces of the two body parts, capturing at least one bearing assembly (94) of a throttle mechanism between the confronting faces to thereby journal a throttle shaft (72) on opposite wall portions of the throttle body. The two body parts also contain a by-pass air passage (114). In one form (FIGS. 1 and 2) an idle air control valve (58) associates with the by-pass passage; in another (FIGS. 3 and 4), an electric motor actuator (167) associates with the passage and with the throttle shaft.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,201 discloses an auxiliary air by-pass actuator valve of small size is disclosed which provides a quick response to the changing RPM of the engine due to changing loads. The actuator employs a stationary D-shaped orifice in communication with a rotatable valve member and D-shaped disc to regulate the amount of auxiliary air which bypasses the throttle blade in an electronic fuel injection system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,742 discloses an idle air control apparatus for a vehicle driving internal combustion engine having an air induction passage includes a control valve in the air induction passage controlled by a stepper motor in response to the arithmetic count of applied electrical pulses, a register effective to store a valve control number representing the currently desired position of the control valve, apparatus effective upon occurrence of a predetermined engine loading event to change the valve control number in response thereto, an up-down counter effective to arithmetically count the pulses applied to the stepper motor and thus indicate actual control valve position, a closed loop control effective to compare the contents of the up-down counter and register and apply pulses to the stepper motor at the first predetermined rate to reduce any difference therebetween and a speed trim loop active only during occurrence of a predetermined steady state idle condition to compare actual engine speed with the desired engine idle speed and arithmetically change the valve control number in the register at a second predetermined rate substantially slower than the first predetermined rate to reduce any difference between said speeds. Thus idle air control responds to large, sudden engine load changes and environmental factors to prevent engine stall but ignores small random speed fluctuations to maintain a stable engine idle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,670 discloses a carburetor which includes a supplementary fuel/air supply circuit for bypassing a throttle valve to provide a fixed fuel/air idle mixture. The supplementary fuel/air supply circuit includes separate fuel and air passageways which join at a mixing intersection. The mixing intersection communicates with a main bore of the carburetor at a point below a throttle valve thereof. The supplementary fuel/air supply circuit also includes a piston valve, which is responsive to manifold vacuum, to control flow of air through the air passageway so that the air passageway is open during periods of high manifold vacuum but closed during periods of low manifold vacuum. An idle-mixture adjusting screw is provided for adjusting air flow through the air passageway; a piston-stop adjusting screw is provided for tuning the position of the piston valve at its “closed” position; and, in one embodiment, a special plug is provided for holding the piston valve in a piston chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,016 discloses a method and apparatus for calculating the air charge mass for an engine as a function of four measured parameters. These parameters include the engine speed measured by a tachometer, a throttle position measured by a throttle position sensor, manifold air temperature, and barometric pressure. Without the need for a mass air flow sensor or a manifold absolute pressure sensor, the present invention provides a system for quickly and accurately calculating the air charge mass for the engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,824 discloses a control system for a fuel injected engine providing an engine control unit that receives signals from a throttle handle that is manually manipulated by an operator of a marine vessel. The engine control unit also measures engine speed and various other parameters, such as manifold absolute pressure, temperature, barometric pressure, and throttle position. The engine control unit controls the timing of fuel injectors and the injection system and also controls the position of a throttle plate. No direct connection is provided between a manually manipulated throttle handle and the throttle plate. All operating parameters are either calculated as a function of ambient conditions or determined by selecting parameters from matrices which allow the engine control unit to set the operating parameters a function of engine speed and torque demand, as presented by the position of the throttle handle.
The patents described above are hereby expressly incorporated by reference in the description of the present invention.